


(and then the realisation hits that not even two gospel choirs could save us now)

by Neelh



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Platonic Relationships, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-26 06:50:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4994395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neelh/pseuds/Neelh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“If I didn’t have Mabel, I’d be pretty bad at everything. I wouldn’t have someone to remind me to sleep, and loosen up occasionally, and Mabel would probably be the overlord of Gravity Falls and forcing us all to eat glitter.”</p><p>(or the one where ford has majorly screwed up)</p>
            </blockquote>





	(and then the realisation hits that not even two gospel choirs could save us now)

Mabel runs past him, elbowing him out of the way so that she can run out of the Shack and into the forest. Dipper tries to join her soon after, before slowing down and turning back.

“Dipper, kid,” Stan says. “What’s up with Mabel?”

Dipper shakes his head. “I messed up real bad, Grunkle Stan,” he sighs. “Great-Uncle Ford asked me to stay and be his apprentice and learn about Gravity Falls, and I said yes, and Mabel found out over the walkie-talkies, and… Stan, I don’t know what to do!”

“I… I’m not sure what to say,” Stan replies, kneeling down beside Dipper and rubbing his temples. “Do you want to stay here? Not for learning about it, but just for the sake of living somewhere that you love?”

“Yes!” says Dipper as he nods enthusiastically.

Stan continues. “Did you tell Mabel that? Did you ask her how she felt? It’s… It’s a pretty big thing, leaving your sibling behind. And you two love each other, so it’ll probably be harder for you to be separated at such a young age.”

Biting his lip, Dipper replies, “I… I didn’t, Grunkle Stan.”

“Okay, Dipper,” he says, standing up and patting down his body to make sure that his brass knuckles are still on him. “You go back inside and tell my brother that you want to stay here of your own accord, and that I said that you need to have an equal say in what happens. I’m going to look for Mabel.”

Dipper nods once, before forcing a small smile and scuttling back inside while Stan turns towards the forest grimly.

 

-

 

“Mabel! Mabel, where are you?”

Having given up on stealth, Stan runs through the forest, occasionally pausing to wheeze and rub his painfully aching back. The only landmarks around him are identical trees, and he cannot stand it. Mabel. He needs to do this for Mabel.

He begins to jog again, because she could be anywhere. He doesn’t think about what could have happened to her, or what she could be hiding from in fear. He doesn’t think about anything that he can’t fix with his brass knuckles and his brute strength.

The smell of pine needles and soil fills his nostrils, and Stan realises that he has collapsed. But he cannot stop. Mabel. Mabel needs him. _Mabel_.

He wakes instantly to the smell of smoke, and his first impression is that the Shack is on fire. Only when his fingers curl around the twigs does he remember where he is and why. His pulse is beating so rapidly that if he wasn’t being filled with a feeling of intense adrenaline, he would probably be dead by now.

Mabel. Mabel. Mabel. Mabel. Mabel. Mabel. Mabel. Mabel. Mabel.

And he sees her, lying on the floor next to a weird fat guy in a jumpsuit with admittedly gorgeous hair. The guy can wait for later, though, and he scoops his great-niece up in one arm while leaving his left fist free.

He lifts his feet and begins to move.

 

-

 

“Great-Uncle Ford?” Dipper says quietly, walking into the basement. He holds his backpack in his hands carefully, before bringing it up to his chest and hugging it loosely.

“Yes, Dipper?” Ford replies, looking up from his desk.

“I…” Dipper takes a deep breath before speaking again. “If I stay and become your apprentice, I want Mabel to stay with me.”

Ford looks up. “Are you sure?”

The boy flinches at the surprised infliction in Ford’s voice. “Yeah… We’re just… She’d be really sad if we weren’t with each other, because we go almost everywhere together.”

Ford crouches next to Dipper, and says in his modulated baritone, “And isn’t it suffocating? Don’t you want to get away from her and learn?”

“Well, yeah, sometimes,” says Dipper, his face scrunching up. “But that’s normal. She’s my sister, and sometimes she can be a bit too much, but I mean, I know that I’m the same. I stay up late at night reading mystery books and I’m kind of a loud reader. But if Mabel wasn’t there…”

Dipper gulps, and looks at Ford in the eye. The author’s main expression is one of confusion, like these words had never before occurred to him.

“If I didn’t have Mabel, I’d be pretty bad at everything. I wouldn’t have someone to remind me to sleep, and loosen up occasionally, and Mabel would probably be the overlord of Gravity Falls and forcing us all to eat glitter.”

Ford pulls out the third journal, and Dipper knows what’s coming. “But look at all that you’ve done without Mabel, my boy! She’s dragging you down, don’t you see? Leaf blowers, that’s ingenious for defending against gnomes!”

And Dipper can’t bite his tongue in time. “That was Mabel, Great-Uncle Ford! The gnomes tried to kidnap her and I rescued her, but then we were cornered and she tricked their leader into getting launched from a leaf blower! She used a psychic amulet to save me from her crazy ex-boyfriend who found your second journal! She has saved my life so many times, and I’ve done the same for her. Heck, she’s _stared down a Gremoblin_! And she does all of this because she loves her family, and she knows I love mysteries, and she loves them too! So, if you want one of us, you get the other as well, because we’re the Mystery Twins!”

Ford sighs, shaking his head. “Ah, I remember when I was your age. I thought that the same applied to Stanley and I. But things change, Dipper. One day, you’ll think that you enjoy spending every day with your twin, and then you’ll realise that they’re holding you back. We were destined for something so much greater,” he says, leaning in to rest a hand on Dipper’s shoulder.

His eyes widening, Dipper draws in a breath and says, “So this is what it’s all about.”

“What do you mean, Dipper?” asks Ford, raising his eyebrows.

“You… We’re not like you and Grunkle Stan!” Dipper shouts, pulling away from Ford, whose eyes widen. “Mabel and I don’t spend every day together, and that’s okay! We both have friends outside of each other, and we aren’t obsessed with each other! I heard what happened with you and Stan! He dropped everything to help you after ten years of nothing! And I mean, yeah, I’d drop everything for Mabel, but that’s just _wrong_. He hadn’t seen you in a _decade_ , Great-Uncle Ford. A decade! And then you give him so much hope and tell him to get away from you, even though he’s been missing another part of himself…”

Dipper gasps quietly. “Wait, do you actually care about me as a person?”

Ford stares at Dipper, his six-fingered hands quivering. “What? Dipper, of course I do!”

The boy doesn’t seem to hear him. “Because looking back on everything, I can’t remember a single time when you didn’t talk about me in relation to how I’m like you. And Mabel and Stan, sometimes they tease me, but when they talk about my feelings, they try to understand me. And you… You’re always talking about how when you were my age, you wanted this and that and… And I look up to you so much, but I’m _not you_.” Dipper wraps his arms tighter around the backpack. “Do you even know who I am?”

“You’re Dipper,” says Ford. “You’re Dipper Pines, and you like… You like mysteries, and Dungeons, Dungeons, and more Dungeons. You’re highly intelligent and you feel ostracised from other people due to that.”

Dipper shakes his head. “Those are all things that apply to you too, though. Am I an individual to you, or just some sort of extension of your own personality? Because that’s really weird and kind of a red flag, now that I think of it. But Great-Uncle Ford, please, I’m not you, and Mabel isn’t Grunkle Stan. We’re our own people, and we love each other.”

Ford blinks, and a look of horror comes across his face. “I’ve… I’ve messed up, haven’t I?”

There is a sudden sound; a cackling laughter; and they look at each other in sudden fear and mistrust, before they solidify into a grim expression of fear and determination. Stanford stands up and, making sure that Dipper is with him, makes his way to the elevator.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this in less than an hour because i have loads of college work but this show
> 
> ford needs to get his shit together in a big shit bag and put it in a special shit locker
> 
> i might continue this if anyone asks but don't expect much
> 
> EDIT: this was written a while back when i had just read some really bad meta on ford that kind of dissolves when you look at him with empathy, and it was just after damvtf which was. well. i think we all remember how we felt when that happened, but ford was lonelier than me and i haven't had a willing interaction with someone else for two months


End file.
